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Microsoft plans to cut 1,000 jobs in Finland: newspaper

[July 16, 2014]  HELSINKI (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp is planning to cut 1,000 jobs in Finland from its mobile phone unit, a Finnish daily said on Wednesday, quoting anonymous sources.

Some 25,000 Nokia workers moved this spring to Microsoft with the cellphone unit acquisition, 4,700 of them in Finland. Globally, Microsoft now has 127,000 employees, far more than rivals Apple and Google.

Wall Street is expecting Chief Executive Satya Nadella to make some cuts, which would represent Microsoft's first major layoffs since 2009.

News agency Bloomberg said on Monday that total job cuts could be the biggest in Microsoft history, topping the 5,800 jobs lost in 2009.

Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat said on Wednesday Microsoft planned to close former Nokia research and development unit in Oulu, northern Finland.

The Oulu unit employs 500 people, mainly working on software used in basic cellphones. The other half of the cuts would come from other locations in Finland.

Finland is struggling with a severe economic recession. Its economy has already contracted for two years in a row and some analysts expect this year to make it three.

(Reporting by Sakari Suoninen)

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